SILK FROM WOOD.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18635, 9 March 1926, Page 5

SILK FROM WOOD.

AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTS SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. f (KROK OUJi OWN COBKESPONPENT.) SYDNEY, February 5. This i 3 the day when science is linked with industry to secure the 'maximum i of production and the. proper harnessing of natural resources to servo the needs of man. There is increasing evidence of recognition of this fact in Australia. The recent announcement of the manufacture of sniafil, the artificial wool that is expected to supplant the lower grades of natural wool, or at least complement the higher gnides, 'brings emphasis to bear on the subject in this land where King Merino is'the barometer of national prosperity! Although experts are fairly . unanimous that sniafi! will hover, duuiugo the prestige of Australia as n wool-producing country, underlying all their opinions is an - ; tHK?er-currcii tr of belief that the position <of lower class wools.might suffer. We '; in Sydney have had actual op-' porttinitv of.'examining sniafil, a parcel having recently been landed. A sample ha& been submitted to miuroscopie examination by Government, scientists. This, examination showed that though the fibres did not possess the characteristic features of wool? their general appearance indicated that they might be suitable for use in the textile industry by the same processes as those used for natural wool. ; Another interesting report released by the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry detail steps which have been taken in this country to try out the suitability of wood pulp made from Australian timbers for the manufacture of artificial silk. By a modification of the sulphite process for making wood pulp for paper manufacture au officer of tho Institute has proved that a remarkably good pulp for artificial silk ,can be produced from the light eucalyptus timbers of South-East-ern Australia. A quantity of this pulp is being prepared "for dispatch to England, in order to have experiments carried out to ascertain its suitability. Artificial silk firms in England have already been communicated with, and es--tablishnient of the industry here is not beyond the possibility of achievement. Nitrogen from Air. Another instance of the part Science is playing in industry is afforded by the announcement that a factory is to be shortly established in Sydney for the liquefaction of air, and the manufacture therefrom of nitrogen. From this compounds, chiefly ammonia and nitric acid, will be obtained. Nitrogen compounds play a vital part in the needs of agriculture, and the company with the Sydney project in hand has secured the Australian rights of German processes for the economic extraction of nitrogen from the air. These processes were perfected during the war, and enabled Germany to secure supplies of fixed nitrogen otherwise denied her by Britain'a blockade. Combined nitrogen is a constituent of some of the most inir portant chemical compounds in Nature and industry. In addition to its-func-tions in plant fertilisation, it is a constituent of explosives,'enters into the composition of numerous dyes and j drugs, and has many other fields of ap- [ plication. The Sydney company has ! already purchased its land, and tiie first | unit of the factory is expected to em--ploy 3000 persons. . Tho scientists in Australia arc fighting their'bottle on a wide front; not only in the secondary industries, but also in the primary industries. A continual battle is being waged, for instance, against tho .prickly pear that has alreadv engulfed millions of acres of land; against the bunchy top disease in bananas that threatens to strangle that industry; against the blowfly that kills thousands of sheep yearly; against plant diseases. They are harnessing our waters for electricity and irrigation purposes. In a hundred and one ways, Australia is benefiting by their work, and though perhaps the value of that work has not been fully recognised by the Governmental authorities, there at least has been some encouragement from these and the public, too. to enable scientists, commerce, and agriculture to link forces in this .country s •mareh to prosperity.